Megavirus breaks all the rules

THE world's largest virus has also turned out to be the strangest ever discovered. It blurs the boundary between viruses and cellular organisms.

Mimivirus was discovered last year in amoebas in a cooling tower in the UK by a research team from France (New Scientist, 5 April 2003, p 18). It has the characteristic coat of a virus but, at 400 nanometres across, the organism is larger than some bacteria. Now the same researchers have sequenced the virus's genome and uncovered more surprises.

The conventional view is that viruses are parasites that are totally dependent on the cells they invade. According to most definitions of life, they are not even living. But the mimivirus might just be alive: its genome suggests it carries out functions never before seen in viruses, such as making its own RNA and proteins, repairing its DNA and producing various chemicals.

What's more, an analysis ...

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